Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
James Patterson

It’s the near distant future and the fate of humanity is in the hands of ….a bunch of kids with wings???? In this fast-paced ‘tween thriller human/bird hybrids escape from a group of mad scientists in order to save themselves – and half the world’s population – from extinction.

Best selling author James Peterson, best known for his upcoming book-turned-tv-series The Women’s Murder Club, into the youth market with the first in this series, Maximum Ride – School’s Out, Forever. Now with a website driven pre-teen following Peterson is rounding out the series while simultaneously prepping the whole thing for Hollywood.

Maximum Ride has been pitched as “what to read after Harry Potter,” but it doesn’t have the fantasy charm of Harry, nor is Patterson as skilled at writing to, but not down to young readers. This fast, fun book would be more accurately pitched as “Buffy meets the Transformers,” with a teenage heroine “Max” Ride taking the lead over a gang of six specially gifted child heroes. Kids 8-13 who like sci-fi and high tech thrillers will enjoy this book which includes everything that age group loves – teenage rebellion, a bit of kissing, and grown-ups who take the backseat to their brilliant, misunderstood children. Techy kids will especially enjoy the accompanying website which features a blog from Fang, one of the book’s main characters, along with pretty spiffy CG movie clips and lots of advance info on the series finale and the upcoming movies. (It’s brilliant marketing, to say the least. Maybe a mad scientist is working for the publisher…?)

Got a kid who would like this read? Maybe a reading-reluctant pre-teen boy you’re trying to entice into some summer reading? Tuck your email into the comments and one lucky reader will get to join Max and her gang on thrill seeking ride.

This review is sponsored by MotherTalk, but the reviewer has forgone any compensation for the review.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 9:15 am and is filed under For the littles, magpie girl, rachelle mee-chapman, mother talk.



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